The traditional way to deliver natural gas to market has always been to ship it by pipeline. However the main factors that determine the viability of such a scheme are volumes of gas to be delivered and the length and cost of the pipeline to bring the gas to market. If the volume of gas is small, the revenues generated by the sale of the gas cannot justify the cost of constructing a lengthy pipeline to deliver the product to buyers. Natural gas which cannot be produced at a profit because it is remote from markets is referred to as stranded gas.
There are numerous examples of non-economic stranded gas but one is very common source is solution gas from oil production. An oil battery's principal activity is to produce oil and the solution gas which is dissolved in the oil is often considered to be a by-product which cannot economically be brought to market. This off gas is therefore often flared. Solution gas is usually rich in liquefiable components such as propane, butane and pentane which, if incinerated along with the lighter gas, represent a significant economic loss as well as waste of a valuable resource.
Another source of stranded gas is the numerous small gas wells which are located in remote areas far from existing pipelines or markets. These small wells often produce from tight formations which have low pressure at the sandface and even lower pressure at the wellhead. Reserves in such reservoirs maybe plentiful but even with fracking, productive life may be short. Such wells are usually capped and the field is not developed because of the unfavorable economics using traditional technology.
Whether the source of the natural gas is solution gas from an oil battery or a small stranded gas well, it is likely that the gas should be compressed if it is to be delivered to a customer. In addition to the pipeline itself, the additional cost of compression equipment adds to the burden of bringing stranded gas into production.
Conventional technology has an envelope within which economic factors such as production rates, revenues, capital expenses and operating costs should create a clear profit. If the balance falls below the lower limit where profit is possible, the plans to exploit the gas are abandoned. The valuable resource is both incinerated and wasted or the wells are capped and the field abandoned. The new technology proposed in this invention can make previously unprofitable projects profitable by bringing natural gas from stranded oil and gas fields to market economically, thus exploiting and conserving a valuable resource and avoiding the wasteful practice of flaring.